Officials with an influential anti-drug organization say they had nothing
to with a phony ad claiming a Native American legend smoked marijuana.

The Cleveland Scene, a newspaper self-described as "smart, uncompromising
civic journalism", was at least one newspaper to run a false advertisement
in February apparently attempting to poke fun at anti-drug campaigns. The
ad was also featured in The Phoenix New Times. A corporation that owns
several other newspapers publishes both papers. The ad featured a
photograph of Sioux leader Sitting Bull with the following caption:
"Sitting Bull smoked marijuana. He lived in a tent with no cable. Then the
U.S. government killed him. Harmless? Partnership for a Drug-Free America".

Many Teton Sioux consider Sitting Bull to be a holy man and honorable war
hero. In addition to possibly offending Native American sensibilities, some
legal experts said the ad was illegal.

" They used our name and logo without our permission," Partnership for a
Drug-Free America spokesman Howard Simon told the Native American Times. "
Our lawyers contacted them with a cease and desist order and they told us
they had no intention of running the ad again."

Simon says the paper published a letter from the organization, and he hopes
that no one in the American Indian community ever thinks they were behind
the ad.

" When you deal with people who feel differently than we do about the drug
issue, you have to deal with some unsavory activity."